""The Last Word" is Raymond Chandler meets "Arrested Development." Zany, witty, and full of dark surprises, Lisa Lutz's novel is pure fun--and Izzy Spellman, PI, tops the list of 'Fictional Characters I'd Like to Meet for a Bourbon.'"--Gillian Flynn, "New York Times" bestselling author of "Gone Girl" The sixth installment of the critically acclaimed, "New York Times" bestselling, Edgar- and Macavity-nominated and Alex Award-winning series by Lisa Lutz, finds our intrepid heroine of the series, Isabel Spellman, PI, at a crossroads. Izzy is used to being followed, extorted, and questioned--all occupational hazards of working at her family's firm, Spellman Investigations. Her little sister, Rae, once tailed Izzy for weeks on end to discover the identity of Izzy's boyfriend. Her mother, Olivia, once blackmailed Izzy with photo-graphic evidence of Prom Night 1994. It seemed that Spellman vigilance would dis-sipate after Izzy was fired for breaching client confidentiality, but then Izzy avenged her dismissal by staging a hostile takeover of the company. She should have known better than to think she could put such she-nanigans behind her. In "The Last Word," Izzy's troubles are just beginning. After her takeover of Spellman Investigations, her employees are the fur-thest thing from collegial...and Izzy finds herself struggling to pay the bills. But when she is accused of embezzling from a former client, the ridiculously wealthy Mr. Slayter, the stakes become immense. If Izzy gets indicted, she could lose her PI license and the Spellman family's livelihood, not to mention her own freedom. Is this the end of Izzy Spellman, PI? "The Last Word" is, hands down, the most powerful book in the bestselling, award-nominated Spellman series.

Publishers Weekly® Reviews

Reviewed in:
Publishers Weekly,
page
.

Review Date:
2013-05-27

Reviewer:
Staff

Lutz delivers another rollicking good time in her sixth novel featuring the wacky San Francisco family of PIs (after 2012’s Trail of the Spellmans). Everyone in the Spellman clan is in an uproar because of Isabel’s hostile takeover of the firm. Izzy’s parents, Albert and Olivia, have taken up a passive-aggressive retaliation involving boxer shorts and plastic curlers, while her sister, Rae, has devised a new revenge-based income stream. Meanwhile, Izzy is helping client Edward Slayter hide his Alzheimer’s, but it’s clear someone is determined to get him kicked out as CEO of a very profitable venture capital firm, and that someone is willing to sic the FBI on Izzy for embezzlement as part of the scheme. Former boyfriend Henry Stone keeps showing up at peculiar times, and Izzy’s battles with her tyrannical three-year-old niece, Sydney (aka Princess Banana), are escalating. The hilarious office memos and footnotes add to the fun. Agent: Stephanie Rostan, Levine Greenberg Literary Agency. (July)

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